The term skycap for workers who help with luggage at an airport was coined by analogy with redcap, a term for porters on trains who wore red caps. Skycap was the winning entry in a contest. Another contest, held in 1923, gave us the word scofflaw, a term for someone who drinks illegally during Prohibition. A Boston philanthropist and staunch anti-alcohol crusader named Delcevare King sponsored the contest run by a local newspaper. Other entries included boozshevik, klinker, wetocrat, slacklaw, and lawjacker. Not to be outdone, a Harvard student magazine ran its own contest, offering $25 for the best slang term “Prohibitionist”: Also-rans included fear-beer and jug buster, but the winner was spigot-bigot. King is buried in Quincy, Massachusetts, where his epitaph reads simply, “He tried to be helpful.” This is part of a complete episode.
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...
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